British illustrator and writer Chris Riddell is the current Children’s Laureate, and a passionate holder of that title in defence and advocacy of children’s literature and literacy. He is also a great children’s author, known for his Goth Girl character and others. But perhaps of foremost interest to us at the club, Riddell – with Steve Bell – is Britain’s leading practitioner of that great tradition: the political satirical cartoon.

The timing of this BookNight for January was planned before the recent events in Paris, and puts those of a year ago into sharp focus. Riddell will talk about the cartoonist’s craft and tradition – that of the mockery of power. Members who subscribed to the Frontline broadsheet will recall his fine work for us, and readers of the Observer newspaper know his hollow humour well.

This will be an in-depth discussion rather than a standard format Q&A. The evening will start with drinks at 7:00 PM, following by a sit-down dinner at 7:30 PM. We will get to know one another over starters before the introduction of the evening’s guest author.

The event will be hosted by Frontline Club director, Pranvera Smith, and founding member and senior correspondent at the Guardian and the Observer, Ed Vulliamy.

Menu £25 per person excluding drinks.

The idea behind members’ BookNights is to have a thoroughly good time, encourage reading and discussion, and to end the night both merrier and wiser than when it began. For more information about membership and the other benefits on offer, please contact membership coordinator Sophie Kayes.

Please ask our friendly bartender to mix you up a free gin & tonic or a whisky & ginger ale. The offer is available from 6:00-8.00 PM but both members and their guests are welcome to stay in the clubroom after the offer ends, the bar will remain open until late.

All members are welcome. We hope you enjoy your evening at the Club.

Ready your teams once more, as the Club Quiz returns in the new year. Use this great excuse to get your friends together and explore the members’ clubroom with its fascinating history and displays of memorabilia.

Teams can consist of up to six people, and there will be five rounds of 10 questions. The entry cost is £5 per person, with all money raised going to the Frontline Fund, assisting families of fixers around the world killed or injured while working with the international media.

We are delighted to welcome Anglo-Italian author and reporter Michela Wrong to present her debut novel, Borderlines. Wrong has been writing non-fiction about African politics for two decades. As a Reuters correspondent first based in the Cote d’Ivoire and former Zaire, she covered the turbulent events of the mid 1990s, including the fall of Mobutu Sese Seko and Rwanda’s post-genocide period. Wrong then moved to Kenya, where she became Africa correspondent for the Financial Times.

In her debut novel, she probes the motives underlying Western engagement with the continent, questioning the value of universal justice and exploring how history itself is forged.

“Borderlines is a novel about relationships, the mysteries they contain, and the ways in which – when they go wrong and leave scars borne across generations – it is often for the most prosaic, petty reasons. This is as true of the relationships between people in the novel as it is for those between governments and their citizens, between nations.” – FT Kola for the Guardian

Guests are encouraged to read the book before the event, although you are also welcome to join if you’ve just started your exploration. This will be an in-depth discussion rather than a standard format Q&A. The evening will start with drinks at 7:00 PM, following by a sit-down dinner at 7:30 PM. We will get to know one another over starters before the introduction of the evening’s guest author.

The event will be hosted by Frontline Club director, Pranvera Smith, and founding member and senior correspondent at the Guardian and the Observer, Ed Vulliamy.

Menu is £25 per person excluding drinks.

For more information about membership and the other benefits on offer, please contact membership coordinator Sophie Kayes.

For our first BookNight of the year, we are delighted to welcome American non-fiction writer and policy analyst David Rieff to present his new book The Reproach of Hunger over an evening with Frontline Club members.

Rieff, who has been studying and reporting on humanitarian aid and development for thirty years, investigates the causes of the ongoing food security crisis caused by the widening poverty gap and political unrest from the Middle East to Latin America.

“Rejecting equally utopian humanitarianism and neoconservative ideology, Rieff’s collection of essays provides a compelling analysis of when military intervention is necessary and when it is doomed to fail.” – George Soros

Guests are encouraged to read the book before the event, although you are also welcome to join if you’ve just started your exploration. This will be an in-depth discussion rather than a standard format Q&A. The evening will start with drinks at 7:00 PM, following by a sit-down dinner at 7:30 PM. We will get to know one another over starters before the introduction of the evening’s guest author.

The event will be hosted by Frontline Club director, Pranvera Smith, and founding member and senior correspondent at the Guardian and the Observer, Ed Vulliamy.

Menu £25 per person excluding drinks.

For more information about membership and other benefits on offer, please contact our membership coordinator Sophie Kayes.

Based on new archive research and original interviews with leading correspondents and diplomats, the book explores why this fiercely contested region exerts such a pull over reporters: those who bring the story to the world. Despite decades of diplomacy, a just and lasting end to the conflict remains as difficult as ever to achieve.

Lyse Doucet, Chief International Correspondent at BBC News, said: “At a time when reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is under unprecedented scrutiny, James Rodgers provides an essential and insightful historical perspective on the long “war of words” behind a major conflict of our time. Rodgers’ book is essential reading for those seeking a greater understanding of the difficult dynamics behind reporting – and resolving conflicts.”

James Rodgers is an author and journalist. His previous books are Reporting Conflict (2012) and No Road Home: Fighting for Land and Faith in Gaza (2013). A former BBC correspondent in Moscow, Brussels, and Gaza, James lectures in Journalism at City University.

Guests are encouraged to read the book before the event, although you are also welcome to join if you’ve just started your exploration. Previous experience has shown that members often gain insight and inspiration from discussions with the author, which enable them to continue reading the book in a new light.

This will be an in-depth discussion rather than a standard format Q&A. The evening will start with drinks at 7:00 PM, following by a sit-down dinner at 7:30 PM. We will get to know one another over starters before the introduction of the evening’s guest author.

The event will be hosted by Frontline Club director, Pranvera Smith, and founding member and senior correspondent at The Guardian and The Observer, Ed Vulliamy.

SPECIAL DISCOUNT FOR THE FRONTLINE CLUB: Save 30% when ordering on palgrave.com. Please e-mail Sophie Kayes for the code. Valid until 31 October 2015. Terms and conditions apply.

Menu £25 per person excluding drinks. 

The idea behind members’ BookNights is to have a thoroughly good time, encourage reading and discussion, and to end the night both happier and wiser than when it began. For more information about membership and the other benefits on offer, please contact membership coordinator Sophie Kayes.

For June’s BookNight we are pleased to welcome author and special advisor at Human Rights Watch Fred Abrahams, who will present his book Modern Albania From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe over an intimate dinner with Frontline Club members. You can now order Modern Albania with a 20% discount. Please use this code to claim your discount: CSF615MALB.

Modern Albania offers a vivid history of the fall of the Albanian Communist regime and the trials and tribulations that led the country to become the state it is today. The book provides an in-depth look at the Communists’ final Politburo meetings and the first student revolts; the fall of the Stalinist regime and the war in neighbouring Kosovo; and the relationship between Albania and the United States. A rich, narrative-driven account, Modern Albania gives readers a front-row seat to the dramatic events of the last battle of Cold War Europe.

Fred Abrahams is a writer who has worked for twenty years in areas marred by political crises and armed conflict, including the Balkans and the Middle East. In Modern Albania, he weaves together interviews with key Albanians and international parties who have played a role in the country’s politics since 1990.

Guests will be expected to have read the book, and to be ready and willing to contribute to the conversation. This will be an in-depth discussion rather than a standard format Q&A. The evening will start with drinks at 7:00 PM, following by a sit-down dinner at 7:30 PM. We will get to know one another over starters before the introduction of the evening’s guest author.

The event will be hosted by Frontline Club director, Pranvera Smith, and founding member and senior correspondent at The Guardian and The Observer, Ed Vulliamy.

Menu £25 per person excluding drinks

As the long trudge towards the general election begins and the news media speculate on a myriad of hypothetical scenarios as to what the brave new world might bring, we are taking a look back at one of the most prominent British leaders and what remains of the values and ideals that he championed.

For April’s members’ BookNight, we are pleased to welcome Patrick Bishop, who will present his book Churchill’s Funeral over an intimate dinner with Frontline Club members.

After Churchill passed away 50 years ago, his funeral gave rise to unprecedented scenes of public mourning, and the conviction that Britain would never be the same again. In his book, Patrick reflects back on Churchill’s leadership during the Second World War to explore how a man who had as many enemies as supporters has managed to gain such a prominent place in our social history.

Patrick Bishop is the author of the critically acclaimed and best-selling Fighter Boys, Bomber Boys, 3 Para and Target Tirpitz. Previously a foreign correspondent for over twenty years, he has reported from conflicts all over the world, and was for many years Middle East correspondent for the Daily Telegraph.

Guests will be expected to have read the book, ready and willing to contribute to the discussion. This will not be a standard format Q&A but an in-depth discussion.

The evening will start with drinks at 7:00 PM, following by a a sit-down dinner at 7:30 PM. We will get to know one another over starters before the introduction of the evening’s guest author. Patrick will then make his presentation and open the floor to discussion.

The event will be hosted by Frontline Club director, Pranvera Smith, and a founding member and senior correspondent at The Guardian & The Observer, Ed Vulliamy.

Menu £25 per person excluding drinks

For March’s members’ BookNight, we are delighted to welcome an award-winning author and foreign correspondent specialising in the countries of the Mediterranean, John Hooper, who will present his new book The Italians, over an intimate dinner with Frontline Club members.

The Italians is the ideal companion for anyone seeking to understand contemporary Italy. Digging deep into the history, culture and religion, John offers the key to understanding everything, from their bewildering politics to their love of life and beauty.

Looking at the facts that lie behind the stereotypes, John sheds new light on many aspects of Italian life: football and Freemasonry, sex, symbolism and the reason why Italian has twelve words for a coat hanger, yet none for a hangover.

Guests will be expected to have read the book and be ready and willing to contribute to the discussion. This will not be a standard format Q&A but an in-depth discussion.

The evening will start with drinks at 7:00 PM, following by a sit-down dinner at 7:30 PM. We will get to know one another over starters before the introduction of the evening’s guest author. John will then make his presentation and open the floor to discussion.

The evening will be hosted by Frontline Club director, Pranvera Smith, and a founding member and senior correspondent at The Guardian and The Observer, Ed Vulliamy.

Menu £25 per person excluding drinks.

For February’s members’ BookNight we are pleased to welcome acclaimed Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov, who will present his recently published book Ukrainian Diaries over an intimate dinner with Frontline Club members.

Kurkov’s diaries portray the ongoing crisis in his homeland which began on the first day of the pro-European protests in November 2013. This first-hand account describes the violent clashes in the Maidan Square, the impeachment of the former president Viktor Yanukovcyh, Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the separatist uprisings in the east of Ukraine.

Guests will be expected to have read the book, ready and willing to contribute to the discussion. This will not be a standard format Q&A but an in-depth discussion, taking the conversation beyond the headlines in an attempt to make sense of the turbulent times that have gripped Eastern Europe over the last year.

The format for the night will be as tried and tested: drinks from 7:00 PM, dinner at 7:30 PM. We will get to know one another over starters before the introduction of the evening’s guest author. Andrey will then make his presentation and open the floor to discussion.

The evening will be hosted by Frontline Club director, Pranvera Smith and a founding member and senior correspondent at The Guardian & The Observer, Ed Vulliamy.

Menu £25 per person excluding drinks

Starters
Smoked Mackerel fillet with beetroot & horseradish cream
Pork belly salad with caramelised apple & dandelion
Pea & watercress soup
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Main Courses
Roast rump of Norfolk Lamb with courgette, mash & black olive jus
Wild sea trout with linguine & lobster bisque
Pumpkin & chickpea tagine with couscous & minted yogurt
****
Desserts
Raspberry & blackcurrant parfait
Dark chocolate & salted caramel tart with creme fraiche
Lemon posset with shortbread